1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a probe structure, more particularly, the invention also relates to a nanoscale probe structure.
2. The Prior Arts
The researchers have concerned the issue about what is the role of cell membrane in the membrane for a long time. It is a barrier between inside and outside of the cell to form a closed system. In addition, the ion flowing in the cell membrane is an interesting biological phenomenon, organism generates energy in respiration and photosynthesis system by obtaining a ion current, the ion current can change the characteristics of the organism, comprising: changing chemical molecules, the osmotic pressure, and ion balance in the biological body which produces different potential difference for organisms to use in active transport and cell migration.
On the other hand, it relies on the cell membrane proton pump to keep the pH value constant, the proton pump can control proton to pass in and out the cell membrane, so as to generate a proton gradient between the extracellular and cytoplasmic sides. It needs energy supply for membrane protein to transport substance passing in and out the cell membrane, the energy supply is nothing more than active transport pump (such as H+-ATPase) or proton gradient. Moreover, it also can transport substance to pass in and out the cell membrane by exchange of substance. These mechanisms of these transports are used to keep ion constant in the cytoplasm and metabolic regulation in organism, therefore, pH gradient in cytoplasm can be an important driving force in the organism to transport nutrient into the cell from external environment, the difference of pH gradient in cytoplasm and tiny organelle supplies energy to most of the secondary transmission system, which makes more substance entry the cell membrane. Thus, the domestic and foreign scholars have deeply concerned about the structure and reaction mechanism of the membrane protein, as well as its proton transfer coupled reaction for a long time, the scholars all hope to further research.
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a nanoscale scanning probe microscopes with high resolution, a cantilever probe with tapered tip measures across a surface and collects the signal, which is mainly used to measure the precise shape of the test sample, and accuracy of the measurement result significantly correlates with the geometry shape and size of the probes. However, current AFM technique cannot measure a reaction mechanism of individual molecule in cell membrane, but a wide range of measurement will lead to excessive noise and interference, it cannot completely show the electrophysiological signals inside and outside of the cell membrane. What is needed is a platform of measuring electrophysiological signals used as a good model of researching a coupled mechanism between “enzyme reaction” and “transporting hydrogen ions”, which also can be used to research and analyze the regulation mechanism on the cell membrane for pathological mechanism and drug screening of a disease related to a nervous system, muscular system and cardiovascular system.